ASUS today announced that its existing 990FX-based motherboards all support the new flagship AMD FX-9000 Series processors at memory speeds up to 2400 MHz, without the need for a BIOS update.

The ASUS Crosshair V Formula-Z, Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 and M5A99FX Pro R2.0 motherboards all feature AM3+ Socket with full support for AMD's extreme-performance FX-9370 and FX-9590 processors. With eight-cores and unlocked clock speeds up to 5 GHz, the FX-9000 Series requires incredible amounts of power and generates considerable heat - AMD recommends a 1200 W power supply and liquid processor cooling.

Existing ASUS 990FX motherboards not only take the FX-9000 Series in their stride, straight from the box, but also support rock-solid stability at memory speeds up to 2400 MHz - something that currently cannot be attained by 990FX-based motherboards from other vendors.

"ASUS is a market leader in the motherboard industry, thanks to the quality and innovation of its products," said Roy Taylor, Corp Vice President of Global Channel Sales at AMD. "The out-of-the-box support for AMD FX-9000 Series processors offered by its 990FX-based motherboards is further proof of the solid design and high-quality components for which ASUS has long been renowned. In fact it's so good, I used the same motherboard in my PC at home."

There are a lot of crappy power supplies out there. A good 600 W PSU can cope much better than many a SUPER-SPECIAL-9999 units out there. Aaand AMD seems to think that bigger numbers are the bomb. Or something. Marketing, never understood it.

AMD expects those spending the bucks for a special FX-9590 CPU to also have a fully decked out box with dual or triple top-of-the-line GPU cards. The 1200w recommendation is so that there is a safety margin as many PSUs are over rated and not the greatest of designs, so they may only function well in the 800-1000w range regardless of the advertised 1200w power.

As far as the FX-9590 power consumption is concerned the total power consumption is 220w but the TDP is closer to 165w based on testing of overclocked FX-8350 CPUs to 5.0 GHz.

Asus is talking smack as usual because most highend AM3+ mobos will support the FX-9000 series CPUs without issue, such as Gigabyte's new board, Asrocks 990FX Fatality and Extreme9, etc. This is just Asus desperately seeking sales as the PC market continues to die with the Asian, U.S and UK economies.

Hardware manufacturers always over recommend on the power supply side, and they should. They don't want to have to replace hardware under warranty because some idiot tries to run a high end rig on a 400w power supply. Remember, these are ASUS' recommendations, not requirements.

If the person is paying $500+ for a CPU it is reasonable to assume they are also going to have at least dual graphics cards, so throw in some 7970s and you can easily hit the 900w mark. So having some headroom with a 1200w unit would be the smart thing to do.

Zero to Facebook faster than it takes me to make a sandwich, which is good enough for me.

In a nutshell, ASUS had early knowledge of FX-9000 CPUIDs. The rest of the article is spin and fluff. The only news here is that there's no word about support for anything except their three most expensive boards.

"ASUS is a market leader in the motherboard industry, thanks to the quality and innovation of its products," said Roy Taylor, Corp Vice President of Global Channel Sales at AMD. "The out-of-the-box support for AMD FX-9000 Series processors offered by its 990FX-based motherboards is further proof of the solid design and high-quality components for which ASUS has long been renowned. In fact it's so good, I used the same motherboard in my PC at home."

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I feel like part of the quote is missing. Something along the lines of "..ever since they gave me this big pile of money."

AMD recommends a 1200 W power supply and liquid processor cooling.

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..just like the processors before it. I don't see anything supporting that AMD said it. As newtekie and others have said, they'd rather tell you to buy expensive parts than potentially have your no-name 500w PSU take out all your components.

balls ,so my formula non Z is a bit sh!t already??, I doubt an Fx9590 can pull more power clock for clock then a 8350 so why the racism against old formula's (crosshair V Formula) in this Pr bumph, And I got the same fob off on Rog's forums but more direct.